ABSTRACT
The importance of froth flotation techniques as means of upgrading valuable minerals is well recognized. The major problems with the coal flotation process are that large amounts of valuable material are lost due to the inability to float coarse middlings within the nominal minus 0.5 mm feed and the entrainment of fine gangue particles into concentrate. These phenomena result in loss in recovery and selectivity of the process. This study illustrates the effect of collector emulsification on flotation recovery and flotation rate. Also, the obtained results were correlated with particle size distribution of froth product in order to study the effect of collector emulsification on recovery of different particle sizes. Increase in flotation recovery and flotation rate was achieved by using pine oil as emulsifier for fuel oil collector. This was attributed to the reduction in oil/water interfacial tension and to the decrease in energy required to spread fuel oil collector across the coal surface. With regard to the recovery of different particle sizes, collector emulsification resulted in a remarkable increase in the recovery of all involved particle sizes, in particular, fine particles. Optimum concentration of pine oil must be considered and established for fuel oil emulsification if the flotation process is to be maximized.
